Mister Sandman
by Septdeneuf
Summary: Coming back from the dead, loosing his Bijuu, two weeks of accumulated paperwork... Gaara can deal with all of that. But going to sleep for the first time in his life? Freaking terrifying


The first Jutsu that Gaara ever learned was one that would've been completely useless for anybody else. For him it was essential.

Before he'd been old enough to perform it himself, his various caretakers had always done so at specific times, so that when it had been time for him to learn it, he hadn't even really understood the need.

It was a simple Jutsu that transformed Shukaku's chakra into energy Gaara's body could use to replenish itself. Probably the most time efficient alternative to sleep and coffee there had ever been. And because it was so important that Gaara never fall asleep, it had been used on him so frequently that he didn't even have a concept of what fatigue was, until he'd tested how it felt going without it for longer periods of time.

Ever since then, he'd just used it whenever he was beginning to feel tired, and had otherwise not paid much attention to it. Well except for being bored while other people were sleeping. Being on a mission and watching everyone else do absolutely nothing for close to eight hours could've caused anybody to go on a murdering rampage, really.

Now, though… now the Jutsu was beginning to fail. He'd noticed that it was a little more difficult to perform the first day after he was back, and the second time he'd used it, the effects had been of notably shorter duration than he was used to.

It should probably not have taken close to three days for him to realize what the problem was, but, to be fair he did have a lot on his mind. Being abducted, coming back from the dead, and two weeks worth of overdue paperwork did take quite a bit of attention.

Not to mention the fact that he was now a former Jinchuuriki. Which was both a disorienting and utterly unique experience. The alarming drop in his amount of usable chakra was the most obvious change, but even then Gaara was still the most powerful shinobi in Suna, just by a smaller margin now.

What threw the young Kazekage more, even though he'd never admit to it, was the sudden lack of a murderous voice commenting on how he should just kill everyone around him at all times of day. He'd had a closer connection to his Bijuu than most demon vessels, so he'd heard Shukaku talking quite a lot, always lusting for blood in some way or another.

As Gaara progressed from psychokiller to Kazekage, and his own inclination to just murder everyone around him steadily decreased, those comments had taken on an ever more annoying quality, but as a Shinobi he'd just learned to deal with it.

The sudden silence was anything but unwelcome, but it made him slightly uncomfortable, too. It was almost as if the running commentary had been replaced by a constant buzzing. That was just his imagination, of course. Still, he felt a bit jumpy when he was around people that would always earn a 'kill them now' without hearing anything.

That he was nervous because he missed the psychopathic voice talking to him in his head was probably something he should keep to himself, though.

And even then, he'd adjusted to ignoring all of the Tanuki's input, he'd adjust to being alone in his head, too.

The issue with his sleep jutsu, though, was one he just couldn't avoid. The Jutsu had been powered by Shukaku's chakra, and now that that was missing it just wouldn't work anymore. Maybe he should teach it to Naruto, in case the blond ever needed an energy boost.

Bad idea, Naruto never needed an energy boost.

At the end of the third day of being alive again Gaara knew he'd have to find a solution. He'd caught himself yawning while doing some paperwork. He never let his fatigue carry as far as having to yawn before.

The solution, of course, seemed obvious. Except for the fact that he had no idea how to implement it.

When he'd taken over as the Kazekage, he'd let an interior decorator redesign the Kage's residence. Gaara himself hadn't wanted to face removing his father's old stuff, and if he was honest with himself, had he decorated it, it would've been a bunch of otherwise empty rooms filled waist deep with sand. And he vaguely knew that sometimes the Kage's residence served for entertaining guests. Who might've found that idea a tad strange.

The decorator had insisted on adding a bed, even though Gaara had told him he didn't need it. Apparently such a thing made the place look more homely and lived in. Gaara had even been asked on his input on the mattress. He'd picked the one first recommended to him, mostly because even while mattress testing, spending any amount of time in a horizontal position made Gaara feel anxious about falling asleep and releasing a destruction loving demon on the hapless furniture store emploees.

Ever since moving in two years ago Gaara had sat on the bed twice. Temari and Kankuro had both sat on it at some point as well. Otherwise it was completely unused.

Now, though. Now its time to shine had come. Not that Gaara really had any idea what he was doing. It was eleven o'clock in the evening, the time when most people stopped bothering him, and he started getting caught up on paperwork, before going to train or read a book maybe.

Now, Gaara turned the lights out in the room, and padded over to the bed. He'd never navigated this room without the lights on, before. He bumped his shin on the bed in his attempt to find it, and almost fell over. He managed to right himself just an instant before his automatic sand armor would have reacted. Temari had once said something about sand in bed being unpleasant, so he was glad he'd been able to avoid that.

He crawled under the covers and tried to find an appropriate sleeping position. On his side and snoring like Kankuro usually did? Or maybe on his back, at times hitting random objects near him, like Temari? He'd once been on a mission with a chuunin who lay on his stomach and drooled.

None of that seemed particularly appealing to him. Lying down anywhere was something he'd pretty much only experienced at the end of his fight with Naruto, and it made him feel more than a little weird. Maybe he should just give up on the whole crazy idea and take his chances with his Jutsu, anyway.

But even if it did work, it could never be more than a temporary fix, and he knew that. So he settled on lying on his back, and contemplating on what he had to do next.

He'd never looked this closely at the ceiling before. Funny how he'd always missed that. Several beats of looking at it assured him that it wasn't a terribly exciting oversight.

So, how to sleep? As far as he'd observed people lay down and then just… stopped doing things. Sometimes they started doing other stuff after a while, though, such as snoring or drooling. But apparently those weren't things that helped you fall asleep. And they didn't seem voluntary either, judging from the way Kankuro always blushed underneath his kabuki paint when it was pointed out to him. The colors didn't match, it looked ridiculous.

It took almost ten minutes of staring at the ceiling for Gaara to remember that people closed their eyes while sleeping, too. Not that it changed much about his situation.

It was only lucky for him that three days without adequate fatigue relief were enough for nature to take over the process. Had he been left to his own devices he probably would have stayed up all night.

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Temari was ready for murder when someone shook her awake in the middle of a pleasant dream that had somehow involved a paintball gun, three watermelons and a really big mess.

Don't ask.

She cracked open an eye and the first thing her gaze fell upon was the glowing numbers on her alarm clock. 2:53 a.m. She groaned and turned toward her assailant. Her red headed brother stood there, his black rimmed eyes a little wider than usual.

Three years ago that sight would probably have sent her into a screaming panic, believing her time had come. Now, though, it just made her groan again.

"Gaara, we talked about this. When you get a great idea after midnight, just write it down and I'll be happy to discuss it with you in the morning." Gaara's abandonment of serial killerdom had greatly improved upon their family relationship (along with the death of their father, who wasn't missed by any of his children, if she was honest). But it had also come with the realization that her baby could be one odd cookie at times.

"Um…", he said, "… right. Sorry to bother you." He hesitantly turned to leave, and Temari's eyebrows shot up. She always said that when he woke her in the middle of the night after he woke her, and he always countered that seeing as how she was awake now, it would just be a waste of paper. In his defense, though, those instances had gotten fewer. The note taking system worked pretty well, usually.

"Gaara, wait, what is it?", Temari asked and sat up, running a hand through her hair. Which was a big mess. Keeping it in her signature hairstyle all day had the unfortunate side effect of making it stick in any and all directons once she let it lose.

"Uh… I'm s-sorry to bother you. Go back to sleep", he said, uncharacteristically subdued. Worry creeped up inside of Temari. He'd literally come back from the dead three days ago, who knew what that could do to a person? Just thinking about that made her throat constrict. A week ago she'd come close to loosing all the family she had left, and images of a poison ridden Kankuro groaning in pain and Naruto holding a completely limp Gaara flashed through her mind.

"No, I'm awake now. Come here, what is it?", she said, patting the bed next to her. Obediently the Kazekage trudged over to her and sat down.

"I… well… I tried sleeping", he said. For a moment those words made fear rise in her. Gaara and sleep in the same sentence was a path to untold horror. But then her mind caught up with recent events and she realized that, Shukaku was gone, and while Akatsuki being in the possession of one more Bijuu was a Bad Thing, loosing the sand demon might turn out to be a blessing for Gaara.

"So… you couldn't fall asleep?", Temari asked.

"No, I did fall asleep." Not very well, evidently, if he was waking her at three in the morning.

"Okay, so… what's the problem?", she prompted when he failed to elaborate further.

"I was asleep… I think, and there were… pictures", Gaara said, looking down at the floor.

"Pictures?", Temari asked, her sleep addled mind not quite following. "What, someone tried to take a photo?"

"Huh? No, there was no one else there", Gaara said, looking surprised at her theory.

"So, what do you mean 'pictures'?"

"In my head", he clarified. "I saw pictures. And there was sound, too. Something was happening, I think…" he trailed off for a moment. "I might be going insane", he admitted, quietly, sounding genuinely scared at the idea. Which was sort of an ironic fear for a reformed psychopath, but Temari had no desire to point that out.

"Why would you be going insane?"

"I had a hallucination!", he insisted, in that moment not looking anything like his usual impassive self.

Temari blinked for a moment, trying to sort out the strange things her younger sibling was telling her. "Sounds like you were dreaming", she concluded.

He stared at her in confusion. "What does any of what I told you have to do with dreaming?"

"Seeing strange things while you're asleep, that's pretty much the definition."

"Not it isn't!" And now Gaara was looking at her as if she was insane. Odd feeling.

"'Course it is. What do you think's the definition of dreaming?" Really, she was a little too tired to play dictionary, but then, what can you doß

"I wanted to become Kazekage, that was my dream, now I want to always protect the village. Naruto wants to become Hokage. Kankuro wants to be the best puppet using Shinobi. Those are dreams."

"Yeah, but those are figurative dreams, I mean literal ones."

The redhead stared at her, before blurting out, "There are different kinds?"

The acute realization startled Temari. Gaara had never slept, and thus never dreamed, so how was he supposed to know what that meant without anybody ever bothering to explain it to him? It was such a strange oversight that had never occurred to her before, and it made her feel vaguely guilty. Shouldn't she, as the big sister, have taught him more about the world?

But she'd never taught Gaara anything, the way she had for Kankuro, because like everyone else she'd been afraid.

She'd correct that mistake immediately.

"When people fall asleep, after a while they experience something called REM sleep, which is a very deep form of sleep. During REM sleep the brain takes impressions, thoughts, memories, etc, from the subconcious and sorts through them, creating something like a story for the sleeping person to experience. And that's called a dream. It's completely normal, everyone has them, even if a lot of people can't remember their dreams after waking up", she explained, hoping she'd gotten the scientific part halfway right.

"So… everyone has them?", Gaara asked warily. Temari nodded. "Everytime they sleep?"

"Well, maybe not always, but often."

Gaara looked more than a little perturbed by this. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, only to open it again afterwards. "I don't think sleeping is for me", he decided. "I'll just stick with my Jutsu, it's always served me well." He moved to stand up, but Temari stopped him with a hand on his elbow.

"And how's that gonna work now that you're not a Jinchuuriki anymore?", she asked seriously.

"I'll… figure something out", Gaara said in the least convincing tone he'd ever used.

"Don't be silly, Gaara, You're gonna have to sleep, eventually."

"I'd rather not", he said.

"Look…" Temari started and looked around her room. She found what she was looking her on a shelf next to her bed and handed it to Gaara. He stared at the scruffy teddy bear and made no move to take it. Had he had eyebrows he'd probably have one raised right now.

"This is Poochy", she introduced. Gaara looked at her strangely. "Shut up, I named him when I was two. Anyway, Poochy here has superpowers." Gaara's look was beyond skeptical now. "It's true. When I sleep with him next to me, he keeps all the bad dreams away."

"There's bad ones?", Gaara asked, sounding horrified.

"Not if Poochy's around. And since you're new to this whole sleeping thing, I'm willing to give him to you, to help get adjusted."

"I'm fifteen years old. I am the Kazekage. I do not need a stuffed animal", Gaara said with disdain. Temari dropped the hand she'd been holding Poochy with on the bed.

"Well… suit yourself, I guess. You know, people who had bad things happen to them in the past, who were traumatized somehow are much more prone to having bad dreams… but I'm sure you'll be fine", she mused, watching as Gaara's expression grew ever more horrified. Before she was done, he'd snatched the teddy away from her. She playfully raised an eyebrow while Gaara glared at her with a light pink blush coating his cheeks.

"Alright, so now back to bed", she declared. "Come on, I'll tug you in." She got up the bed and he followed her.

"You're going to do what with me?", he asked in confusion.

"I'll show you", she said and then impulsively took his hand, leading him back to his own room. He followed after her, still not looking convinced of the whole sleep idea.

"Okay, lie down", she instructed when they reached his room and the practically unused room. He did, so, looking at her expectantly. She leaned over him and fluffed up his pillow, then tugged the sheets around him, putting Poochy right next to his head. She was suddenly reminded of all the times their mother had done this for her when she was a little girl and impulsively decided to follow the same ritual. She leaned down further and pressed a kiss on Poochy's forehead, and then one on Gaara's right next to the 'love' Kanji.

He looked up at her with wide eyes, not used to the gesture. It made him look a lot younger, and she smiled down at him.

"Sweet dreams, Gaara."

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A/N: Let me know what you think. This might turn into a two shot, but I'm not sure, yet. Would you guys be interested?


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